What help us to know ourselves, what things are not helping factors, and how we can analyse ourselves from the outgoing faculties and intellect is a practical subject. This is truly called spirituality.

Birthday Message 1973

Written by Sant Kirpal Singh, March, 1973

­The wide world is the home of our Father, and various countries are so many rooms therein. Man is the highest in all creation. We are all members of the family of God. Animals, birds and reptiles are also the younger members of the family of God. There is no question of East or West. We are children of God, born the same way, with the same privileges from God. Soul being of the same essence as that of God, we are all brothers and sisters in God; and the same One Power whom we worship is called by different names.

Man body is the golden opportunity in which we can know God. He cannot be known by outgoing faculties, mind and intellect. It is the soul, being of the same essence as that of God, that can know God. So we must know ourselves first, as like alone can know the like.

All philosophers and sages of the East and West therefore gave out Man know thyself! in their own language which was prevalent at the time. The Greeks said, gnothe seauton; the Latins said, nosce te ipsum. All others also said the same thing: knowledge of self precedes knowledge of God.

Knowledge of self cannot be had at the level of feelings or emotions or by drawing inferences. All these are subject to error. Seeing is above all. Seeing is believing.

Real knowledge of oneself will come by self-analysis or by rising above body consciousness, the demonstration of which is had at the feet of some Master.

This is why all Rishis of old enjoined children to be 'twice born' – one birth in the man body, the other by rising into the beyond. When they were twice born, they gave them the gayatri mantra, which means 'rise above the three planes and identify yourself with the sun.' The children were given demonstrations thereof and opened their Div Chakshu (third eye) to see the Light of the sun. This custom still prevails amongst the Hindus: the children are made 'twice born,' and given the gayatri mantra, but they are not given the demonstrations thereof for want of practical people. Christ also gave out, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Man body is the wonderful house we live in. The body works as long as we are in the body. There are nine apertures therein. We cannot run away out of it. We are controlled in the body by some Power. When that is withdrawn, we have to leave it. We reside in the body as well as the God Power, which also resides in it. Body is the true temple of God.

Outer Hindu temples, churches, and other holy places were made after the model of the man body. Therein the two symbols of God are kept: viz., 'God is Light,' and 'God is Nada' or the music of the spheres.

We reside in the body and God also resides therein; both reside in the same body, but one does not talk to the other. Mind is the one standing in our way, between us and God. The first step we have to take is to control the mind, no matter to which school of thought we belong. Mind cannot be controlled by practices involving the outgoing faculties and the intellect; there is only one remedy of controlling the mind, and that is within you. The remedy is the true nectar of Naam, the 'water of life,' the 'bread of life,' which is within you; by tasting the sweet elixir of which, mind leaves off all outer attachments.

You have to become a Gurumukh. Just do what the Master orders you to do. Live up to His commandments one hundred per cent; you will progress quickly. Be grafted in Him; you will become what He is. St. Paul said, It is I, not now I, but Christ lives in me. To achieve this realization, true living is required. Truth is above all, but true living is still above truth. Leave off all worldly things which are standing in your way. Live up to what the Master says, and pray, 'O God! Take us back home by any excuse You can find. We are not fit, not worthy for that. It is only Your Grace that can lead us to Your Home.'